Google AdWords 'Store Visits' Metric Rolling Out in US

Google is attempting to bridge the gap between online and offline by launching a 'Store Visits' metric in AdWords.

Announced on Thursday, the new metric is part of Estimated Total Conversions, AdWords' holistic conversion-measuring feature. Estimated Total Conversions already provides analytics for phone calls, in-store purchases and cross-device conversions - with some metrics being more accurate than others.

Store Visits will provide a 'big picture' estimate of customers who visit a store after engaging with an ad. Thanks to privacy rules, this will be based on "anonymised, aggregated user data [extrapolated] to the broader population", writes Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land.

She continues: "Google's privacy thresholds mean that an individual's actions won't be attributed directly back to a search ad click."

So how useful will this data be? Well, Marvin also reports that Google has said its estimates for cross-device conversions are "very conservative", so it makes sense to assume the same for Store Visits.

That's not the only catch. Apparently, reporting for Store Visits will only be available at campaign level, and Marvin reckons only large, multi-location retailers will be eligible to use the metric, at least initially.

That said, one of the retailers testing the service, PetSmart, reported that 10-18% of ad clicks leads to a real-life store visit.

The feature will be rolling out to eligible advertisers in the States over the coming weeks.